WORLD NEWS
Powerful Earthquake Rocks Turkey, Syria: Death Toll Stands at 640+ and Rising
A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked southern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday morning, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing at least 641 people. The death toll is expected to rise throughout the day.
Rescue workers searched mounds of wreckage in cities and towns across the area as hundreds of people remained trapped under rubble.
Chinese Spy Balloon Shot Down, Falling Toward Atlantic
The Chinese surveillance balloon drifting east toward the Atlantic Ocean has been shot down by the U.S. military and is now falling into the sea, video shows.
Television footage showed the balloon deflating before dropping toward the water around 2:40 p.m. U.S. military jets were visible flying in the vicinity, and ships were deployed in the water preparing for the recovery operation.
The shootdown came after President Joe Biden earlier on Saturday broke the silence on the balloon, telling reporters that “we’re gonna take care of it.”
In a statement that shortly followed, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Biden gave the go-ahead on Wednesday to “take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path.”
He added that the balloon was being used by Beijing “in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States.”
After “careful analysis,” Austin said they ruled out the possibility of downing the balloon over land “due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload,” which would pose an “undue risk to people across a wide area.”
U.S. officials previously estimated its size at about three school buses, flying at about 60,000 feet.
New Video Emerges Of Chinese Spy Balloon Being Shot Down
New video emerged Saturday afternoon showing close-up footage of the moment that the U.S. military shot a Chinese spy balloon out of the sky over the Atlantic Ocean.
A senior U.S. military official said that an F-22 Raptor took out the spy balloon with one air-to-air A9X sidewinder missile that was fired at an altitude of approximately 58,000 feet.
A Biden administration official confirmed that the United States was unaware of the Chinese spy balloons that flew over the United States during the Trump administration until after he left office.
The unnamed defense official confirmed to Fox News that Chinese spy balloons traveled over the United States at least three times during the previous administration, specifically in Florida and Texas. The former president and his top security and defense officials have refuted this claim, but the Biden official noted that the balloons remained undetected until after he had left office. Per the report:
“U.S. intelligence, not the Biden administration” assesses that “PRC (People’s Republic of China) government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time.”
The official told Fox News that “this information was discovered after the [Trump] administration left.”
“They went undetected,” the official told Fox News Digital.
As initial reports indicated when the Chinese spy balloon first appeared over Montana last week, traversing for three days across the country until the military finally shot it down, the Biden official confirmed to Fox News that the surveillance operation fits into a “larger pattern.”
“These balloons are all part of a PRC fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which have also violated the sovereignty of other countries,” the official said, adding that the operations are “often undertaken at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army.”
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that President Joe Biden allowed China to spy on the United States for a week by not shooting down the Chinese balloon.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: So this balloon traversed 11 states, but the Pentagon says they were able to mitigate some of its impact. Do you think there is upside to the fact that this was captured this time?
CRUZ: Well, listen, I want to start by doing something that I don’t do very often, which is commending Joe Biden for actually having the guts to shoot this down. That was the right thing to do. That is absolutely what the President should have done. Unfortunately, he didn’t do that until a week after it entered U.S.airspace. He allowed a full week for the Chinese to conduct spying operations over the United States, over sensitive military installations, exposing not just photographs but the potential of intercepted communications. And- and more broadly, I think this entire episode, telegraphed weakness to Xi and the Chinese government. And to illustrate why I would just ask one- one hypothetical question: imagine how this would have played out if nobody had taken any pictures of the balloon, if nobody in Montana had looked up and noticed this giant balloon, if it wasn’t in the news. We know that when the Biden administration knew about the balloon, they said nothing, they did nothing, they didn’t shoot it down. And at the end of the day, I think the only reason they shot it down is because it made it into the news and they felt forced to as a matter of politics rather than national security. That’s a bad message for the Chinese government to hear.
BRENNAN: Well, the Pentagon has since disclosed that it’s apparently happened four times before, never quite like this. Back in 2020. the Trump administration shuttered the Chinese Consulate in Houston after detecting espionage. Do you think there needs to be more diplomatic fallout on that scale now?
CRUZ: Look, I think there does. When the Trump administration shut the Chinese consulate in Houston, I spoke with the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about it. And what they had discovered about the espionage activities being carried out in the state of Texas by the Chinese government was horrifying. Right now, there is a Texan, Mark Swidan, who is a political prisoner. He is a hostage in China. He’s been there for 10 years. This past week, I introduced a resolution on the floor of the Senate, along with John Cornyn, calling on China to release Mark Swidan. He’s wrongfully imprisoned. He’s been there 10 years, they’ve sentenced him to death on charges for which they have little to no evidence, and- and I had been urging Tony Blinken when he was going to Beijing, to raise Mark Swidan’s case and to make the case for Mark to be released. China, if they want to demonstrate that they’re not bad actors, if they want to demonstrate that they can aspire to being a great nation, they should release Mark Swidan because great nations and great powers don’t hold political prisoners.
China calls balloon incident a setback for ties with US
The attack on the airship disrupted bilateral relations, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing has said
Washington’s decision to shoot down a Chinese high-altitude balloon that had entered US airspace last week is detrimental to diplomatic relations between the two countries, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
By deciding to destroy the vessel, which China has described as a “civilian unmanned airship,” the US “obviously overreacted and seriously violated the spirit of international law and international practice,” the ministry asserted.
“What the US has done has seriously impacted and damaged both sides’ efforts and progress in stabilizing Sino-US relations since the Bali meeting,” it added, referring to the November sit-down between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Indonesia.
China “resolutely opposes and strongly protests” Washington’s response to the balloon incident, and “urges the US not to take further actions that harm China’s interests, and not to escalate or expand the tension,” the ministry stated.
Cotton: ‘Humiliation Was Inflicted by Chinese Communists’ on Biden
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that President Joe Biden allowing the Chinese balloon to fly over the United States was a “humiliation.”
Anchor Shannon Bream said, “The president’s supporters say this actually illustrates he is doing good job with China. An opinion piece in The Washington Post talks about the spy balloon as clumsy attempt by China. It shows immense capacity to blunder, tendency President Biden exploited, a series of humiliations on chief rival. They point to the embargo, out of china and Philippines expanding access. They say he is doing a good job.”
INFOGRAPHIC: China’s Methods of Subversion and Unrestricted War Against America
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has for decades waged a quiet war against the United States, mobilizing all elements of its society, and targeting all institutions and foundations of the American system.
In this war, it is using a series of unconventional warfare tactics designed to achieve the goals of war, without engaging in troop-on-troop combat. Many of these tactics were detailed in the 1999 Chinese military book, “Unrestricted Warfare,” but pull from older deception tactics and from programs that were set in motion by the Soviet Union. The key goal is to win a war without fighting openly, to seize control of a society gradually, to steal an economy, and to use methods to intentionally keep the public distracted and unaware.
Among the overarching strategies is the process of subversion. The Soviet Union used subversion to spread its “communist revolution,” and the CCP has adopted many of the same strategies to export its “China model.” Subversion is a process to seize control of a country by destroying religion, morals, traditions, and everything that makes the country function; with the end-goal of bringing the country into a state of chaos, so that the public will support outside intervention to install a new form of government.
Casey Fleming, CEO of BlackOps Partners Corp., a global intelligence strategy and cyber advisory company, described the CCP’s strategies as a system of “asymmetrical hybrid warfare,” using a combination of unconventional and conventional tactics to achieve any number of goals.
“The ultimate goal is complete takeover, both economically and militarily, until permanent capitulation is achieved,” Fleming said, and described it as a form of warfare “based on deception, and devoid of any rules.”
Military Experts Issue Warnings on Possible US-China Conflict After Spy Balloon Shot Down
Several former military officials said that the United States could face significant shortfalls if there is ever a conflict with the Chinese regime over Taiwan, coming as U.S. military jets shot down a Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the United States.
“Unfortunately, talking broadly and in overall terms, the Chinese have dramatically increased their air, sea, space, cyber, and missile capabilities in the last couple of decades,” James Anderson, acting undersecretary of defense for policy under President Donald Trump, told Fox News.
“In some of the scenarios that could happen, we might well be at a competitive disadvantage initially because they have home-field advantage in terms of their capacity to quickly mobilize local forces,” he said, “and that’s really important to the [Chinese military].”
Last week, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the new chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, said the odds of conflict with China over Taiwan “are very high” after a U.S. general released a memo about a potential conflict with the regime in 2025.
Gen. Mike Minihan, who heads the Air Mobility Command, wrote to the leadership of its roughly 110,000 members, saying, “My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.”
“I hope he is wrong … I think he is right, though,” McCaul said in an interview last week.
Although the general’s views do not represent the Pentagon, it shows concern at the highest levels of the U.S. military over a possible attempt by China to exert control over Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a wayward province. “We’re preparing for it and we should,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the Senate leadership, told news outlets last week in response to a question about a possible U.S.-China conflict. “There are four countries around the world that we watch very carefully in terms of our own security. China is number one.”
UK Mom’s 4-Year-Old Son Forced to Partake in LGBT Pride Parade—So Now She’s Taking Legal Action
A Christian mom in the UK is having her case heard after her son, then four years old, was forced by his school to partake in a gay pride parade against her will.
Mom Izzy Montague was told by the head teacher of Heavers Farm Primary School in Croydon, South London, that her son could not opt out of the pride event despite their family’s Christian beliefs.
Now, Montague alongside Christian Legal Center has launched legal action against the school for direct and indirect discrimination, victimization, and a breach of the Education Act 1996 and Human Rights Act 1998.
This is the first case in the UK where a court will consider the legality of imposing LGBT ideology on students in primary school. It will weigh the aspects of religious discrimination and the human right of parents to determine the moral instruction of their children by opting out of sex education programs.
The case is being heard from this week, Feb. 1-10.
Great Reset: Supermarket Chain Lidl to Cut Down on Meat Products to Serve Green Agenda
Major European grocery chain Lidl will seek to reduce the amount of meat products sold in its stores in favour of “alternative” protein sources to promote the global green agenda.
Lidl’s purchasing director for the German market, Christoph Graf, said this week at a Berlin ‘Green Week’ event that the discount supermarket retailer will seek to move away from selling meat because “there is no second planet”.
In comments reported by the German newspaper Der Spiegel, the grocery executive said that in order to meet the demands of a global population, meat consumption in the West needs to be reduced.
Germany, UK, U.S. Bust Major Darknet Child Porn Sites, Arrest Admins
Police in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States coordinated to arrest several administrators and programmers linked to three darknet child pornography websites with thousands of active users.
The Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation and the Central Office of Cybercrime announced Friday that the three darknet sites had been shut down and that individuals linked to the sites had been arrested in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the USA.
Italy Suffers Widespread Internet Outages
Thousands of Telecom Italia (TIM) customers across Italy complained of internet outages and glitches on Sunday which the company blamed on problems with an international link.
Users from the northern city of Milan to the Sicilian capital Palermo reported problems, with the issue mainly focused on fixed-line internet services.
Some soccer fans bemoaned interruptions to their streaming of the Serie A game between Spezia and league leaders Napoli.
“An international interconnection problem impacting the service at national level was detected. Analyses are underway to resolve the problem,” a TIM spokesperson said.
Italy’s national cybersecurity agency said a “massive attack using an already circulating ransomware” has been detected by the computer security incident response team, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported.
TIM, the former national telecoms monopoly, is at the center of a takeover struggle, with private equity group KKR having made a non-binding bid to buy its network.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Pinkerton: What Did Joe Biden Know About China Spy Balloon-gate and When Did He Know It?
“What did the president know, and when did he know it?”
That was the question asked of Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. The presumption, of course, was that the 37th president knew more about the scandalous activities than he was letting on. And, of course, Nixon was ultimately forced out of office because of Watergate.
Today, I’d like to ask the same question of Joe Biden about the China Spy Balloon-gate scandal. Of course, the matter of the Chinese spy balloon is lot more serious than the Watergate break-in because it potentially affects the safety and well-being of 335 million Americans.
Yes, President Biden finally oversaw the shoot-down of the spy balloon on Saturday, but only after it had spent days floating over the United States’ landmass from Alaska to South Carolina. Is that the right way to handle an intrusion from a rival — even adversarial — superpower? Should we allow their surveillance machines to traverse our country and only deal with them after they’ve finished their American tour?
Exclusive — Sen. Steve Daines: ‘A Circus Clown Knows How to Better Handle a Balloon’ than Joe Biden
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the Chinese spy balloon that recently flew over the country, telling Breitbart News “A circus clown knows how to better handle a balloon than the White House.”
Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle opened the interview by asking Daines for his opinion on the Chinese spy balloon that spent multiple days flying across the continental U.S. before U.S. officials shot it down on Saturday.
Daines considers the Chinese spy balloon, and Biden’s response to it, a “complete embarrassment to the United States of America.”
Daines warned that as Biden “continues to demonstrate weakness” on the world stage, he will only embolden our adversaries.
“There’s a reason why Vladimir Putin went into Ukraine. Because he knew Biden’s weak. There’s a reason the Chinese continue to test the Taiwan Strait. Because they know Biden is weak,” Daines said. “There’s a reason they launched this spy balloon and just let it hover over America, because they knew Biden is weak.”
The Montana senator pointed out that as the spy balloon traveled over his home state, it was also “hovering over our intercontinental ballistic missiles” stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
“Malmstrom Air Force Base is in Great Falls, Montana. It is the home to about 145 to 150 intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Daines explained. “Any one of those has forces that are weapons of mass destruction with incredible precision. In fact, the motto of that air force base was ‘scaring the hell out of America’s enemies since 1962.’”
Daines said that by allowing the spy balloon to hover over our military bases, Biden sent “a message to Chinese that we’re weak.”
“This was really more of a trial balloon, perhaps they call it a spy balloon. The Chinese were testing our forge, and we flunked the test,” Daines said.
Daines highlighted reports that the White House knew about the spy balloon for “several days,” and suggested Biden failed to act because he “didn’t want to upset Secretary Blinken’s trip to Beijing.”
“So it’s outrageous. And I will tell you this, a circus clown knows how to better handle a balloon than the White House,” Daines said.
House Homeland Security Chair Green: I Never Got Alerted About Spy Balloon by Biden Administration
On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox News @ Night,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) stated that he was never alerted by the Biden administration about the Chinese spy balloon.
Host Trace Gallagher asked, “Are you getting any information, sir, from the Pentagon about the specifics or anything else about this balloon?”
Green responded, “No. We’re getting very little and we never got a phone call. We never got alerted to this. It’s a crying shame when the Chairman of Homeland Security finds out about a Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States, it’s just — it’s really unconscionable.”
Gallagher later asked, “What’s the reasoning, what’s the rationale behind not telling us more about this, giving us more information, Congressman? Did they think we wouldn’t find out about this? What’s the working theory right now about why this administration that consistently says transparency, transparency, transparency won’t give us any kind of information?”
Green answered, “Well, I think they’re ashamed of their actions. They recognize that this is weakness on the global stage. But they seem to think that that’s what’s best. Don’t poke Xi Jinping, we don’t want to make Xi Jinping mad at us. Look, the guy has got a spy balloon over our country. This is unacceptable. And I don’t really understand why this thing was allowed to come into the United States’ airspace.”
Another Chinese Spy Balloon Traveling Over Latin America, Pentagon Says
A second Chinese spy balloon is currently traversing Latin America, Pentagon confirmed late on Feb. 3 amid rising concern about a Chinese surveillance balloon hovering eastward across the continental United States.
“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a statement to media outlets.
The comment came hours after Ryder was pressed at a briefing with reporters about a Canadian defense ministry statement on Friday that they were monitoring a “potential second incident,” and whether the United States is doing the same. Ryder in response referred the question back to the Canadian authorities.
The first Chinese balloon, which military officials described to be a “high altitude surveillance balloon,” appeared earlier this week above the state of Montana, home to one of the country’s three nuclear missile silo fields.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday postponed a trip to Beijing that would have marked the highest profile U.S. visit to China over the balloon, calling the balloon “irresponsible” and “a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law.”
“[China’s] decision to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have,” he told reporters.
House Judiciary Subpoenas FBI Director Wray and AG Garland for Targeting Parents
House Judiciary Republicans issued subpoenas to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland to produce documents about alleged FBI investigations of parents at school board meetings in response to a controversial directive that Garland issued in late 2021.
The Epoch Times reviewed the subpoena, signed by Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), which forces Wray to turn over relevant documents to the House Judiciary Committee on March 1 at 9:00 a.m. ET due to the alleged “misuse of federal criminal and counterterrorism resources.”
The subpoena wants “all documents and communications referring or relating to” meetings with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in connection to Garland’s memo issued in October 2021 to address “violent threats” that were allegedly made against school officials that Republicans later described as a politically motivated attempt to squash dissent. It also seeks to compel documents and communications relating to the establishment of a related Department of Justice task force.
“Since October 2021, Judiciary Committee Republicans have sent over one hundred letters to Biden Administration officials requesting answers about how the Administration used federal counterterrorism resources against American parents,” the House Judiciary Committee said in a later news release.
The Oct. 4, 2021, memo directed the FBI to team up with local law enforcement agencies and U.S. Attorneys to identify possible threats at school board meetings. It came in light of viral incidents where parents criticized school board members and teachers across the United States, accusing those officials of promoting left-wing or pro-LGBT viewpoints to students.
All documents and communications relating to the FBI’s “EDUOFFICIALS” threat tag and related investigations are also sought by House Judiciary Republicans, according to the subpoena. Weeks after Garland’s announcement, House Judiciary Republicans, citing whistleblower testimony, revealed how the FBI created the threat tag to track allegedly threatening statements at board meetings and said it was proof that counterterrorism resources were being used against parents.
“This subpoena is continuing in nature and applies to any newly discovered documents, regardless of the date of its creation,” it says. “Any document not produced because it has not been located or discovered by the return date should be produced immediately upon location or discovery subsequent thereto.”
Inside the Secret Government Meeting on COVID-19 Natural Immunity
Four of the highest ranking U.S. health officials—including Dr. Anthony Fauci—met in secret to discuss whether or not naturally immune people should be exempt from getting COVID-19 vaccines, The Epoch Times can reveal.
The officials brought in four outside experts to discuss whether the protection gained after recovering from COVID-19—known as natural immunity—should count as one or more vaccine doses.
“There was interest in several people in the administration in hearing basically the opinions of four immunologists in terms of what we thought about … natural infection as contributing to protection against moderate to severe disease, and to what extent that should influence dosing,” Dr. Paul Offit, one of the experts, told The Epoch Times.
Offit and another expert took the position that the naturally immune need fewer doses. The other two experts argued natural immunity shouldn’t count as anything.
The discussion did not lead to a change in U.S. vaccination policy, which has never acknowledged post-infection protection. Fauci and the other U.S. officials who heard from the experts have repeatedly downplayed that protection, claiming that it is inferior to vaccine-bestowed immunity. Most studies on the subject indicate the opposite.
The meeting, held in October 2021, was briefly discussed before on a podcast. The Epoch Times has independently confirmed the meeting took place, identified all of the participants, and uncovered other key details.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University who did not participate in the meeting, criticized how such a consequential discussion took place behind closed doors with only a few people present.
“It was a really impactful decision that they made in private with a very small number of people involved. And they reached the wrong decision,” Bhattacharya told The Epoch Times.
Experts Reveal How to Get 2023 Tax Refund Back as Quickly as Possible
Tax attorneys and accountants say that those who want their refunds quickly should file electronically and ask for a refund via direct deposit to their accounts.
“If at all possible, file electronically, and request that you receive your refund by direct deposit,” tax attorney Adam Brewer told Nexstar on Friday. “I know no one really loves to give their banking information to the IRS or to the state, but if you want your refund quickly, you have to give them the direct deposit information.”
John Vande Guchte, a certified public accountant with Strategies Wealth Advisors, told CNBC on Wednesday, that “the general rule of thumb is start as early as possible, whether you’re filing on your own or working with a preparer,” while also advising to file electronically.
“If scammers get ahold of identifying information such as your Social Security number and date of birth, they’ll file a tax return as quickly as humanly possible and claim your refund,” Vande Guchte also said. “Then when you go to file in March or April, your return gets rejected because someone already filed under your Social Security number.”
The IRS says on its website that it’s the best way for taxpayers to receive their refund.
“Taxpayers should prepare to file electronically and choose Direct Deposit for their tax refund—it’s the fastest and safest way to file and get a refund,” said recent guidance issued by the IRS on its website. “Even when filing a paper return, choosing a direct deposit refund can save time.”
Those who are getting a refund can check the status of their refund on the IRS’s Where’s My Refund page. The agency notes that some returns take longer if they are filed via paper, include errors, are incomplete, need another review, or are impacted by fraud or identity theft.
For some Americans, receiving a refund back is significant. A survey from Credit Karma, released in January, shows that about 30 of Americans rely on their refund to make ends meet
Those numbers are even higher for Gen Z and millennials, the survey said. Forty percent of Zoomers and 46 percent of millennials stated they were reliant on their tax refunds to make ends meet, it found.
House to Vote on Bill to End International Air Travel COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
The House of Representatives is set to vote this week on legislation that, if passed and signed into law, would remove the requirement for proof of a COVID-19 vaccine for non-U.S. citizens who seek to fly into the United States.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Feb. 3 separately confirmed the upcoming vote for HR 185.
“We are voting next week to end the vax mandate on legal foreign air travelers,” Massie, who introduced the measure on Jan. 9, announced on Twitter. “There’s never been a mandate on U.S. Representatives, Senators, or their staff, so how can we vote in good conscience to mandate it on others? We need to end this policy now.”
In another post, he wrote, “The CDC’s unscientific mandate is separating too many people from their families and has been doing so for far too long. It needs to end.”
Responding to a query about whether the bill addresses land border crossings from Canada, Massie wrote: “Unfortunately it does not. I asked to add that to my bill as an amendment but the parliamentarians say it’s not germane, because the air mandate is based on CDC and the land mandate is promulgated by DHS [Department of Homeland Security].
“But, if we can pass this, there’s a strong case for passing that soon.”
The summary of HR 185 reads: “This bill nullifies the order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention titled Amended Order Implementing Presidential Proclamation on Advancing the Safe Resumption of Global Travel During the COVID-19 Pandemic and published on April 7, 2022. (The order restricts the entry of noncitizens who are not immigrants into the United States by air travel unless they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or otherwise attest that they will take public health measures to prevent the spread of the disease.)
“The bill also nullifies any successor or subsequent orders that require foreign persons traveling by air to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of entry and prohibits the use of federal funds to administer or enforce such a requirement.”
The U.S. Travel Association, a national nonprofit representing travel businesses, supports Massie’s proposed legislation.
Texas Border Sheriff Wants Smugglers to Get 5 Years per Illegal Immigrant
The number of human smugglers arrested by deputies in Kinney County, Texas, has more than quadrupled in the past two years, and the sheriff wants the penalties to increase.
Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe said his deputies arrested 741 smugglers transporting illegal immigrants from the border in 2022, up from 169 in 2020. In addition, deputies were involved in 139 vehicle pursuits, up from 61 in 2020; high-speed pursuits also have doubled, leading to multiple deaths.
Coe said his deputies are arresting people who are flying in from Ohio or Washington, renting a car at the airport, and then picking up illegal immigrants at the U.S.–Mexico border to transport them to San Antonio. Smugglers from Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Florida also are prevalent in the area, he said.
The sheriff said he’s also seeing repeat offenders—those who have been charged with human smuggling but for whom no jail space is available (usually females and juveniles), so the charges are filed at large, leaving the suspect to continue to smuggle.
Coe plans to attend Sheriffs’ Day in Texas’s capital on Feb. 22 to get lawmakers on board with stiffer smuggling penalties. He says he wants smugglers to get a mandatory minimum jail sentence of five years per illegal immigrant being smuggled in the vehicle.
“So if you’ve got one, you’re looking at five years; if you’ve got 10, you’re looking at 50 [years],” Coe told The Epoch Times.
Report: Over 800K Border Crossers Freed into U.S. Without Court Dates Since Biden Took Office
More than 800,000 border crossers and illegal aliens have been released into the United States without a Notice to Appear (NTA) in immigration court by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since President Joe Biden took office.
The figure, first published by CBS News, details the extent to which the agency released hundreds of thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. interior without court dates. Instead, border crossers were given a Notice to Report (NTR) to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office or Parole Plus Alternatives to Detention (ATD).
An illegal alien MS-13 gang member was released into the United States at the southern border by federal officials before allegedly murdering 20-year-old Kayla Marie Hamilton in July 2022, Angel Mom Tammy Nobles details.
As Breitbart News reported last month, the Aberdeen Police Department arrested and charged a 17-year-old illegal alien MS-13 gang member from El Salvador with murder, accusing him of killing Hamilton in her residence in July 2022.
Texas Police, Family in Desperate Search for Missing Corrections Officer
Police and family members are engaged in a desperate search for a missing 24-year-old correctional officer in the border community of Eagle Pass. Evelyn Guardado, 24, went missing shortly after 2:00 pm on Tuesday, January 31, after leaving the GEO Group Incorporated Correctional Facility where she is employed.
Guardado’s family reported her disappearance to local authorities who initiated an investigation into her disappearance. Guardado is a certified police officer who formerly worked as a deputy constable in Maverick County. Family members attempted to call the missing woman’s telephone but found it had been turned off shortly after her disappearance.
District Judge Finds Gun Ban for Marijuana Users Unconstitutional
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Patrick R. Wyrick dismissed an indictment against Jared Michael Harrison, holding that the statute relied upon to ban gun ownership by marijuana users is “unconstitutionally vague, in violation of the Due Process Clause, and unconstitutionally infringes upon his fundamental right to possess a firearm, in violation of the Second Amendment.”
Harrison was indicated by a federal grand jury on August 17, 2022, for possessing a firearm while being an “unlawful user of marijuana,” with 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) being relied upon in the indictment.
EXCLUSIVE: Florida University Conceals Rampant DEI, CRT on Campus, Insider Report Says
University of Florida has hidden programs from DeSantis probe, has ties to gender clinic performing mastectomies on teens
A University of Florida insider released a report exclusively to The Epoch Times showing that the university underreported its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, even as the governor’s office confirmed universities across the state have spent millions of dollars promoting DEI.
The insider, who spoke to The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity, said the University of Florida (UF) funding numbers turned in at the direction of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not disclose a vast network of personnel and programs pushing DEI, which includes Critical Race Theory (CRT).
He pointed out that as many as 33 DEI liaisons at UF fell under the radar when the university self-reported its DEI programs to the governor’s office.
The insider also noted that the university had ties to a “Youth Gender” program, which he said has conducted 50 mastectomies on teens 16 and older.
Dr. Michael Haller, who heads the gender clinic, said in a June 2022 interview with University of South Florida’s Health News Florida that UF Health provides gender-affirming treatment to approximately 200 patients.
The insider said a local news article printed in August 2022 reported that the Youth Gender Clinic performed mastectomies on teenagers, some of whom were only 16 years old.
He included a report from the “Do No Harm” medical organization that reported that UF’s College of Medicine admission and educational programs were “indoctrinating students using teachings at the core of CRT.”
In a Thursday statement, the governor’s press secretary Byran Griffin said DeSantis’s office believes that DEI and CRT initiatives in the state’s public education institutions are “significantly misreported and underreported,” noting the lack of transparency surrounding the gender clinic.
“Nonetheless, what was reported revealed an extraordinary misuse of taxpayer dollars to promote a political agenda at the expense of academic focus,” Griffin said.
The state of Florida is yanking the liquor license of an Orlando performance venue, saying the “Drag Queen Christmas” show it hosted in December was sexually explicit while being marketed to families and children.
Advertising for the event “did not provide notice as to the sexually explicit nature of the Show’s performance or other content,” the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco said in its complaint against the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation Inc., filed Feb. 3.
“Respondent promoted the Show using targeted, Christmas-themed promotional materials that did not provide notice as to the sexually explicit nature of the Show’s performance or other content,” the complaint said, referencing a photo of the event’s listing online included as evidence.
“Rather than call attention to the Show’s sexually explicit content or acknowledge that it might not be appropriate for children, Respondent’s promotional material unequivocally stated “all ages welcome.”
“Prior to the Show occurring and based on media reports about the Show at other locations, Petitioner sent a letter to Respondent notifying Respondent that ‘sexually explicit drag show performances constitute public nuisances, lewd activity and disorderly conduct when minors are in attendance’ and that, if Respondent failed to ensure that minors were prohibited from attending such performances, its license would be subject to penalties up to and including revocation.”
Judge Wants Answers After Jan. 6 Defendant Reverses Himself, Proclaims Innocence
A federal judge is demanding answers from lawyers representing a defendant after the man proclaimed his innocence one day after admitting he entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in violation of federal law.
U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta on Feb. 3 gave the defense and prosecutors one week to explain why he shouldn’t act following a published interview of Thomas Adams Jr., the defendant.
Adams told The State Journal-Register that he wouldn’t change anything he did on Jan. 6.
“I didn’t do anything. I still to this day, even though I had to admit guilt, don’t feel like I did what the charge is,” Adams said.
The comments on Feb. 1 came one day after attorneys for Adams reached an agreement on facts in the case with prosecutors. In the agreement, the parties agreed that the government would show that Adams entered the U.S. Capitol through a breached door without authorization and made his way to the Senate chamber before being escorted out of the building by law enforcement officers.
The parties presented the agreement to Mehta, an Obama appointee. Mehta decided, based on the facts presented, that Adams was guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and of entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds.
TEXIT Scores Victory Against Censorship On TikTok
The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) TikTok account ban has been lifted, with the account reinstated.
TNM TikTok account was banned on January 27th, given no explanation with no previous strikes or violations. As of February 2nd, the TikTok account has been reinstated. TNM still has no explanation for why the ban happened to begin with.
Two Aircraft Narrowly Avoid Collision on Runway at Texas Airport
Two aircraft, a FedEx cargo carrier and a Southwest Airlines airplane, were cleared to use a runway at the same time at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, forcing the FedEx plane to change course.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) initial assessment was that an air traffic controller had cleared the Southwest aircraft to use the runway just before the FedEx plane was scheduled to arrive, KVUN reported.
A mother and her daughter allegedly brawled with Spirit Airlines employees in Philadelphia on Monday, losing a few articles of clothing along the way.
The fight occurred at around 7:30 p.m. Monday night at the Philadelphia International Airport after the mother and daughter, who were boarding a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, were told the airline would have to charge an additional fee given the size of their bags, the Daily Mail reported.
‘Operation Love Wins’ Will Fund Travel for Families to Visit Jan. 6 Detainees at DC Jail
A program founded by a Jan. 6 defendant aims to make it easy for families to visit their loved ones being held in pretrial detention or as prisoners in the District of Columbia jail.
Shane Jenkins, who faces his own trial on March trial on 10 criminal counts from his presence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, hopes to raise enough money so every Jan. 6 detainee or inmate in the jail can receive a family visit.
“It’s been almost two years for most of us,” Jenkins said in a statement announcing “Operation Love Wins,” sponsored by his organization The Real J6.
Powerful Koch Brothers Political Network Announces It’s ‘Turning The Page’ On Trump
The powerful network of political groups funded by conservative billionaire Charles Koch and his late brother, David Koch, has announced it’s “turning the page” on Donald Trump and seeking another Republican to back in a 2024 run for the presidency.
“To write a new chapter for our country, we need to turn the page on the past,” Emily Seidel — CEO of the network’s flagship organization, Americans for Prosperity — wrote in a memo released Sunday.
“The best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter. The American people have shown that they’re ready to move on, and so AFP will help them do that,” she added.
AFP doesn’t specifically name Trump, but its perspective on him, and preferring someone “new,” is clear.
A related super PAC — AFP Action — is also “prepared to support a candidate in the Republican presidential primary who can lead our country forward, and who can win,” the memo added. AFP Action spent roughly $80 million in the 2022 election cycle, according to the campaign finance tracking website OpenSecrets.
AFP also stressed that it would no longer sit out primaries but instead will become active in the contests early, following the poor performance in general elections of GOP extremists backed by Trump in various primaries. The AFP memo argued in the memo that the Republican Party is “nominating bad candidates who are advocating for things that go against core American principles.”
HEALTH
RECALL WARNING:
FDA Issues Alert, Announces Recall of Common Thyroid Medication
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday announced the recall of a thyroid medication after it was found that lots of the drug may be “subpotent.”
IBSA Pharma Inc. confirmed it is recalling Tirosint-SOL, or levothyroxine sodium, a medication used to treat an underactive thyroid gland. It said that the “voluntary recall has been initiated because these lots may be subpotent,” stated the announcement, published on the FDA’s website.
“The company’s analyses show a slight decrease below 95.0 percent of its labeled amount in levothyroxine sodium (T4) for some lots,” according to the recall notice. The recall doesn’t apply to Tirosint capsules.
People who take the recalled, subpotent drug could “experience signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) which may include, fatigue, increased sensitivity to cold, constipation, dry skin, puffy face, hair loss, slow heart rate, depression, swelling of the thyroid gland and/or unexplained weight gain or difficulty losing weight,” the notice said.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Americans Fleeing Overtaxed States, Moving to Florida
Recent data shows that Americans are fleeing high-tax states, and a vast number of them are headed for Florida.
A report released on Jan. 30 by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows that 26 states saw more people moving in than out. The rest saw people leaving for other states. The top five states, attracting the largest number of new residents, were Florida (318,855), Texas (230,961), North Carolina (99,796), South Carolina (84,030), and Tennessee (81,646).
Conversely, the five states that lost the most residents were California (-343,230), New York (-299,557), Illinois (-141,656), New Jersey (-64,231), and Massachusetts (-57,292).
A map (pdf) composed by Americans for Tax Reform shows that, of the five states that drew in the most residents, all had Republican-controlled legislatures, and all but North Carolina had Republican governors. Of the five states that lost the most residents, Democrats controlled all but Massachusetts, which had a Republican governor and a Democrat-controlled legislature.
Data released by the Census Bureau confirmed that Florida was the fastest-growing state in the country in 2022, with an annual population increase of 1.9 percent.
NAR report author Nadia Evangelou noted that 2022 “was the first time since 1957 that Florida’s population grew faster than anywhere else across the United States.” The southern region of the Sunshine State—which over 9 million of Florida’s residents call home—also continues to be the most populated and is seeing the fastest growt
Celebrities Including Madonna, Tom Brady Mired in Lawsuits for Pushing Crypto, NFTs
Celebrity superstars who leveraged their fame to endorse digital assets like cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) face a series of civil lawsuits by investors who lost fortunes when the sizzling bull run for all things crypto iced over and those assets plunged in price.
From movie stars to celebrity athletes, many have found themselves named in lawsuits over their promotion of since-failed virtual asset projects.
The lawsuits make a range of claims, including violations of unfair competition laws and civil conspiracy, with some under federal law and others under state laws, which stipulate various legal requirements for the promotion of financial products.
While the details of the cases vary, their thrust is encapsulated in an article from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which cautions that endorsing investments without disclosing compensation is illegal. According to the Securities Act of 1933, anyone who touts a security must disclose the fact that they’re getting paid to endorse it.
“Celebrities and others are using social media networks to encourage the public to purchase stocks and other investments. These endorsements may be unlawful if they do not disclose the nature, source, and amount of any compensation paid, directly or indirectly, by the company in exchange for the endorsement,” the article states.
The SEC has sharpened its focus on digital assets amid a remarkable explosion in interest in the space.
“Crypto markets have exploded in recent years, with retail investors bearing the brunt of abuses in this space. Meanwhile, cyber-related threats continue to pose existential risks to our financial markets and participants,” Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement.
IRS Changes Definition of ‘SUV,’ Making More Vehicles Eligible for Tax Credits
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) modified the regulatory definition of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) to make more vehicles eligible for an electric vehicle (EV) tax credit of up to $7,500.
In a notice issued on Feb. 3, the IRS and the Department of the Treasury jointly changed the vehicle classification standard by which vans, SUVs, pickup trucks, and some other vehicles are defined, making more models eligible for federal tax credits.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) made SUVs priced at up to $80,000 eligible for the EV tax credit, while cars, sedans, and wagons could only qualify if they were priced at up to $55,000.
The changes mean vehicles that automakers consider crossover SUVs now qualify for the credit.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Dry run: Balloons called top ‘delivery platform’ for nuclear EMP attack
High altitude balloons, like the one China has floated over mountain state military bases this week, are considered a key “delivery platform” for secret nuclear strikes on America’s electric grid, according to intelligence officials.
Spy balloons, used by Japan to drop bombs during World War II, are now far more sophisticated, can fly at up to 200,000 feet, evade detection and carry a small nuclear bomb that if exploded in the atmosphere would shutdown the grid and wipe out electronics in a many-state-wide area.
Jury: Musk Didn’t Defraud Investors With 2018 Tesla Tweets
A jury on Friday decided Elon Musk didn’t defraud investors with his 2018 tweets about electric automaker Tesla in a proposed deal that quickly unraveled and raised questions about whether the billionaire had misled investors.
The nine-member jury reached its verdict after less that two hours of deliberation following a three-week trial. It represents a major vindication for Musk, who spent about eight hours on the witness stand defending his motives for the August 2018 tweets at the center of the trial.
Musk, 51, wasn’t on hand for the brief reading of the verdict but he made a surprise appearance earlier Friday for closing arguments.
Not long after the verdict came down, Musk took to Twitter—the social media platform he now owns—to celebrate.
“Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed!” Musk wrote on Twitter.
Nicholas Porritt, an attorney who represented aggrieved Tesla investors, said he was disappointed after urging the jurors in his closing arguments to rebuke Musk for reckless behavior that threatened to create “anarchy.”
“I don’t think this is the kind of conduct we expect from a large public company,” a downcast Porritt said after discussing the verdict with a few jurors who gathered to talk to him. “People can draw their own conclusion on whether they think it’s OK or not.”
No Evidence Russia Involved in Nord Stream Blasts Found So Far, German Investigators Admit
No evidence that Moscow was involved in the suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea has been found so far, a German investigator has admitted.
An investigation being conducted by Germany’s Public Prosecutor General, Peter Frank, has come up with zero evidence that Russia was involved in the explosions that rendered both Nord Stream pipelines inactive.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
Big Data, Transhumanism and Why the Singularity May Be Faked
Silicon Valley is essentially fused with the national security state. Silicon Valley is now also entering into joint ventures with medical companies, and many of these ventures are financed by groups like In-Q-Tel, which is the CIA’s venture capital arm
There’s a concerted effort to frame transhumanism — which is really the new eugenics — as health care. Joint ventures involving Big Tech, Big Pharma and the security state typically focus on products and services that normalize and further the transhumanist agenda
Food and agriculture are also being tossed into the mix. The U.S. government has launched a “Food is Medicine” program, which is yet another way for the government to seize control of the population. Food as medicine will be used to get you into their control system, and keep you there
In 2023 and 2024, watch for the rollout of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It’s crucial that as many people as possible refuse the system during the initial voluntary phase. Once it becomes mandatory, it cannot be stopped and all freedoms will be lost
If the singularity cannot be achieved, technocrats may end up faking it, because if they can blame eugenics, depopulation and other unethical decisions on artificial intelligence running the government, they can do whatever they want, with no repercussions
Operation Warp Speed — A Technocratic Chess Piece?
Many of the same surveillance initiatives proposed after 9/11 have been resurrected, with updated technology, under the guise of combating COVID-19
Operation Warp Speed, the White House Administration’s effort to produce a fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccine and other therapeutics, is almost entirely funded and operated by the CIA and the U.S. military
Operation Warp Speed is supporting the creation of several COVID-19 vaccines, all of which will be deployed, but to different “critical populations”
Operation Warp Speed is shrouded in secrecy that makes it difficult to ascertain the true agenda, but part of the plan is to monitor vaccine recipients for 24 months after the first dose using biosensors that record and share biological data
Like 9/11, the COVID-19 pandemic is being used as justification for the implementation of more tyrannical controls. It appears they’re laying down the infrastructure for a totalitarian control system set to be fully deployed later
COVID RELATED NEWS
Government-Purchased COVID-19 Treatments Set to Run Out—Here’s What to Expect
COVID-19 vaccines and treatments that have been free of charge to consumers, due to U.S. government funding, will eventually transition to be provided via the regular health care system.
This means that certain COVID-19 tests, vaccines, and treatments, will cost more for some.
Pfizer Admits ‘Directing’ the Evolution of COVID-19 Virus
January 25, 2023, Project Veritas released an undercover video of Dr. Jordon Trishton Walker, director of Research and Development for Strategic Operations and mRNA Scientific Planning at Pfizer, discussing an internal plan to “direct the evolution” of the COVID-19 virus in order to make more money from COVID boosters
According to Walker, Pfizer is doing research to make the virus “more potent,” and this research is “ongoing”
Walker explains how the drug industry has captured American regulators, and states that while it’s good for the industry, “it’s bad for everyone else in America”
At 8 p.m., January 27, 2023, two days after Project Veritas released the video, Pfizer finally published a response which, oddly enough, seems to substantiate rather than refute Walker’s claims
Pfizer basically denies using “directed evolution” in its vaccine development, but suggests it may be used in ongoing Paxlovid-related research
MIT Expert Calls for Immediate Stop of mRNA COVID Jabs: Evidence Shows ‘Unprecedented Level of Harm’
The rollout of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines should be immediately suspended, as they are causing “an unprecedented level of harm, including the death of young people and children,” said Retsef Levi, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“This is not a theory anymore,” the professor told The Epoch Times, referring to findings that link the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines with myocarditis, a potentially fatal inflammation of the heart. “These are proven facts that basically undermine any sense of safety about these vaccines.”
For more than 30 years, Levi has worked extensively in the areas of analytics and modeling, looking at risk management issues in the context of health systems and health policies. Mainly, analyzing data sets to see what they reveal about aspects like quality, safety, and risks.
Appearing on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program in November 2022, Levi discussed his study that showed a correlation between a 25 percent rise in heart attack emergency calls among young, healthy Israelis in early 2021 and the country’s extensive mRNA vaccination efforts. While the study should certainly warrant an in-depth investigation, he argued, it will take more proof than just a correlation to put a stop to all those vaccine programs.
“The main question that we need to ask ourselves is: Do we have enough evidence from this study and many other studies to say ‘halt?’” he said at that time.
In a video statement he shared Monday on Twitter, Levi said he has now seen a substantial amount of evidence that the risk of dying from myocarditis triggered by mRNA vaccines is outweighing the benefits those vaccines have to offer.
“At this point in time, all COVID mRNA vaccination programs should stop immediately,” he said in the six-and-half-minute video statement, which went viral with at least 1.5 million views in just a day.
USA Today Smears Mercola Over Vitamin C and D Information
Mainstream media, supported by monopoly tech platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, are going to great lengths to control the narrative of what you see and read about the COVID-19 pandemic
May 2, 2020, USA Today tried to debunk my April 7, 2020, article, “Vitamins C and D Finally Adopted as Coronavirus Treatment,” which has more than 814,600 views, without presenting any counterevidence
The majority of mainstream media in the U.S. are owned, funded (through advertising) — and therefore easily controlled — by only a few powerful corporate entities and industries, some of which are overseas and may not even have American interests at heart
Only 47% of American adults trust mainstream digital publishers to report accurate information about COVID-19. Still, 85% trust the CDC and 77% trust WHO, both of which have the same conflicts of interest as most mainstream media
Both vitamin C and D have an enormous amount of evidence showing they provide important immune function benefits, and that your immune function is your front-line defense against all illness, including COVID-19
CANCEL CULTURE
Facebook, Instagram Threaten to Restrict or Ban Project Veritas
Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms have threatened to restrict or ban Project Veritas after a journalist approached a senior YouTube official about the removal of a video about Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines.
On Feb. 3, the nonprofit journalism organization Project Veritas published footage that appears to show one of its reporters questioning YouTube’s vice president of global trust and safety, Matt Halprin.
The video shows the reporter asking Halprin in public about YouTube’s removal of a video featuring a senior Pfizer official, unaware he was being recorded, discussing how the company is considering mutating the COVID-19 virus to develop new vaccines proactively.
Halprin refused to answer the reporter’s inquiries and instead told the reporter not to touch him while also threatening to call the police, before walking away.
“YouTube took down our Pfizer exposé. YouTube gave us a strike and will not let us post for a week,” James O’Keefe, head of Project Veritas, said in a video.
Facebook and Instagram warned Project Veritas that its video of Halprin violates “Community Standards.”
“We have these standards because we want everyone to feel safe, respected, and welcome,” the warning said. “If your content goes against our Community Standards again, your account may be restricted or disabled.”
A Primer on Medical Gaslighting
The medical industry has a vested interest in concealing injuries from its products
A cruel but common method for accomplishing this is medical gaslighting
Two of the most common diagnoses use to gaslight patients severely injured by the COVID-19 vaccines are “anxiety” and “functional neurologic disorder”
Most doctors do not intend to gaslight their patients, but this behavior is an almost inevitable consequence of of their training and the modern practice of medicine. A patient understanding their perspective helps make it possible for doctors to see that patient’s medical injuries
GOOD NEWS
A 17-year-old podcast producer who was addicted to endless scrolling on social media said his health and life dramatically improved when he quit it all in a digital detox.
Ilias Michael, from Lostwithiel, Cornwall, a county in England’s rugged Southwestern tip said combining it with meditation has helped with ADHD and improved his mental health.
“I know, through experience, that using social media you get sucked into the endless scroll,” Illias said. “Many people don’t understand the negative impact it can have on their lives, but I personally know it’s not ideal for me.”
Sharing more about how his addiction to social media began, the teen said that during the 2020 lockdown, going on social media was all he did.
“I can tell you from that experience it is the worst thing you can do for your mental health,” he said.
Illias described that period as a “dark time.”
“I felt completely worthless. Obviously social media wasn’t the only thing that made it so bad, but it was a big factor when I was 15,” Illias said.
Each day he would spend hours on social media.
“I was going on Instagram seeing jacked dudes who are super ripped, which made me feel bad. It’s all the stuff people say you shouldn’t look at, but it’s really hard to stop,” Illias said. “Scrolling through social media, every new post creates another spark of dopamine, which seems fun, but it doesn’t last and there’s hardly any effort put into getting that hit.”
He realized that everything else seemed boring after a certain amount of time without that spark of dopamine.
“People can’t read a book or go for a walk because it seems flat in comparison,” Illias said.
He also felt that the more social media he used, the less motivated he felt to improve himself and to slow down and enjoy the little things in life.
“Sometimes you will find [that] you open the app without even thinking – ‘yo I did not choose to do this,” Illias said.
He quit the use of social media in 2021 when he began meditation.
“Deleting social media is good but what motivated me to continue to stay off it is meditating,” Illias said. “When I started meditating and started being mindful and living in the moment, I realized that social media is the opposite of being mindful.”
ICYMI
Report: Mount Washington Hits 89-Year Low of -47 Degrees; Windchill Breaks U.S. Record
Humane Society Will Write ‘Crappy’ Exes’ Names in Litter Box for Valentine’s Day
A Christmas Story’ Mom Melinda Dillon Dead at 83
Sand from Where Tom Brady Announced Retirement Being Auctioned for at Least $99K
Suspected Human Smuggler Flees on Horseback from Border Agents in Arizona
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